Monday, December 29, 2008

1. Rediff has featured the story of R Madhavan, an alumnus of IITM, who has chosen to become farmer by means of a slideshow. He came to the notice at this year's Pan-IIT event. Couple of interesting points:

"They [Israel] treat each plant as an industry. A plant producing one kilo of capsicum is an industry that has 1 kilo output."

"Drip irrigation is not only for saving water but it enhances your plant productivity. We commonly practice flood irrigation where they just pump water. As per the 2005 statistics, instead of 1 litre, we use 750 litres of water."

And the most important of all:"My target is a net income of Rs 100,000 per annum per acre. I have achieved up to Rs 50,000."

I think this is too ambitious goal and if it is possible, lot of farmers can get rich including my Father.

"f I have 200 acres of land, I can go for food processing, etc. My next project is to lease land from the small farmers for agriculture. The village will prosper with food processing industries coming there. My yield will also be more with more land."2. Morgan Stanley Private Equity (MSPE) has invested Rs 182 crore for a “significant minority stake” in Biotor Industries, an integrated manufacturer of castor oil and castor derivatives in the world. This may be the first deal in the country in agriculture sector.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

1. Scientists have identified a gene, called Sub1a, that confers a tolerance to submergence and precisely transferred that genetic information into popular rice varieties in South and Southeast Asia. The new rice varieties passed field tests last month in Bangladesh and India. They will be made available within two years to smallholder farmers in flood-prone areas where seasonal rains have destroyed crops, according to University of California-Davis news releases.

The Maharashtra government is set to announce another farm loan waiver package to cover all those who were excluded by the central government's waiver package. The latest package is likely to cost between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 7,000 crore, and "benefit" 2.7 million farmers.

I think this is more for taking out political mileage than really benefiting the farmer. Here is the proof that these things do not work out. The front page story in businessline points out that "Nearly 40 per cent of these banks’ eligible farmer-borrowers, who own over 5 acres of agricultural land, are believed to have not coughed up even the first instalment towards one time settlement in order to avail themselves of the 25 per cent rebate on their loan overdues."

Under the Debt relief scheme-2008, the government gives 25 per cent rebate on the overdue loan amount if farmers bring in the balance 75 per cent for one-time settlement.

Monday, December 22, 2008

1. Do farmers really benefit from commodity future market. They may not do so directly but indirectly they get affected as brought forward by this article. The author also gives example of Mondragon Cooperatives of Spain to put emphasis on his point.

2. C.K. Prahalad discusses on opportunities in agriculture - "Till now the focus has been on pre-harvest elements like fertilisers and pesticides. But India has serious post-harvest issues of wastage, poor preservation of perishable products and inadequate access to markets. Companies like ITC, Amul, Reliance and Bharti are investing to address these issues. And it is benefiting farmers. Amul does not waste anything. You can do something similar in products as varied as shrimp, arecanut, coconut. But you can't simply replicate the Amul model, you will need to build separate structures."

3. Something that we need to do in India as well - implementation of integrated water, agriculture and energy programmes to enhance sustainable development.

Minimum support prices fixed by the government continue to be a matter of debate for some right reasons.

Sugarcane farmers are asking for increase in the SMP (statutory minimum price) for sugarcane. Their logic: MSP of wheat and other crops has been increased by about 37% which that of sugarcane remains the same. Very valid point as the cost of cultivating has not remain same and has grown in more or less the same proportion to that of wheat and other crops.

MSP of cotton has also been in lime lite ever since they were declared just before the economic slowdown began. Private players are no longer ready to pay the MSP, which is very high according to them. CCI (Cotton Corporation of India) had to come in fill the gap in the supply-demand equation to keep the MSP alive. This is the reason why CCI has been able to procure lots of cotton.

Several people have raised their voice about the ways in which MSP prices ought to be fixed. Here is the link to the article in Businessline by Sharad Joshi.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

1. Rubber plantations are taking strong roots in Maharashtra's coastal Konkan region, thanks to a salubrious climate, improved yield and the state's own initiative to popularise the cash crop. And the fact that several farmers from Kerala, the traditional home for rubber plantations, have invested in the business in the coastal districts is only helping the trend catch on further.

2. Update on GM debate: Environment ministry is for the GM crops like Bt Brinjal but as we noted down some days back, health minister is against any such moves.

3. Rice Intensification technology known as System of Rice Intensification (SRI) for having bigger yields with less seeds, water and fertilizers is gaining popularity in India. SRI is a novel approach to increase the rice production by constructively reducing the capital fertilizer, labour and water and promoting more abundance, diversity and activity of soil biota in and around the plant’’s rhizosphere.

1. Rich countries and companies are eying land in poorer countries as an investment in future for food security. Some poor countries are happy to trade it with other desirable options like dollar and oil. More details here.

2. This article discusses about rooftop farming and vertical farming. Rooftop farming is nothing but planting the crops on the rooftop. Though it sounds very simple, it is not so. Check out this company called SkyVegetables. Vertical farming was coined by Dickson Despommier, an environmental health sciences professor at Columbia University. His idea is to grow and harvest food in multistory structures specifically designed for this purpose. Though it is an interesting idea, but an expensive solution.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

1. Some interesting things happening in organic space. "Lalbhai Group’s flagship Arvind and State Bank of India are set to cement a relationship later this month by signing a memorandum of understanding that will link over a thousand farmers in Vidarbha region’s Akola district to a demand-driven supply chain and an assured cash flow. The company buys back cotton at a 30% premium to conventional cotton varieties such as Bt and hybrid, and uses it to produce organic denim for export to Frankfurt." Details here.

As posted earlier on this blog, there has been lot of interests by corporates like Pepsi, RCF to get into contract farming. This is a kind of win-win situation for both the farmers and the corporates. The former get to sell their produce at higher prices without paying a "rip" to the middleman and the later get the supply of raw material without much hassles.

2. Union Minister for Health Anbumani Ramadoss has again touched the controversial topic of GM food. He said he will oppose introduction of such a variety without conducting proper tests.

1. Have you ever heard about Agriculture insurance company (AIC). It was set up to dispense insurance protection over agriculture and allied activities. Despite having such an organization in our country, crop insurance is rarely heard. There is hardly any effort to spread the awareness about various crop insurance schemes despite having so many rural banks, agriculture institutions and rural-based economy. This article list down some recommendations to increase the awareness and strengthen the agri-insurance.

2. Our ex-finance minister had given a generous 72,000 crore farm loan waiver in the union budget. This brought lot of happiness among the farmers and will probably fetch him some extra votes in the next election. However, he forgot, or pretended to ignore a fundamental problem. After giving this waiver, what will be the incentive for the profit-motivated banks to give fresh loans to farmers. And this is what farmers are facing today - non-availability of fresh loans. This story discusses this problem in detail.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Slowdown has becoming a buzzword for lunch discussions nowadays. Its difficult to find any newspaper front page without a mention or hint towards this global economic turmoil. However, for rural India, whose dependence is on agriculture, global downturn hardly matters. Although it may have some impact with a lag (eg. textile industry suffering, cotton prices falling and so on), but the relative difference is not much. And so companies are targeting rural India - as this article in livemint says. "due to its primary dependence on domestic consumption rather than exports, rural India would be even more insulated, given that almost 60% of its households are dependent on agriculture, where fortunes fluctuate more on the basis of vagaries of the monsoon than those of the Sensex or Lehman Brothers and AIG! Even the increasing spiral of inflation, with its direct impact on prices of vegetables, would indeed benefit the farmer, fetching him a better price for his produce."

Not quite true as I mentioned earlier. The prices are falling and the effect goes to source i.e. agricultural commodities. Government is already finding it difficult to maintain the MSPs. There is another interesting article about how government meddling is creating the slowdown in the agricultural sector. The first few lines have got some sense of humour, but sadly it is true partially - " How will Indian agribusiness fare over the next six months? The answer lies not in demand-supply, volatility in international markets, credit supply or weather. It all depends of sarkari mood".

Sunday, November 30, 2008

1. As reported on this blog earlier, farmers are finding it difficult to sell cotton at MSP fixed by the government. Farmers who are in desperate need of money are selling for whatever they are getting as it is impossible for the CCI to go in every nook and corner of the country. Government, however, is doing its part of bailout announcements. This time it is mulling a bailout package for the cotton industry.

2. Some news from Karnataka agriculture: Sugarcane growers are cribbing on getting lesser prices than fixed by government. One of the ministers says that 40 percent of Karnataka's soil is degraded. The noted soil scientist J. C. Katyal, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Choudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University (Haryana), said the root of the problem has been traced to degradation of soil quality. If the soil lacks any nutrients, the agricultural produce grown on it will also suffer from nutrient deficiency and ditto with people who eat these produce, he said.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Union agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar is all for stimulating private investment in the horticulture sector to boost the economic condition of farmers in the midst of a global financial gloom. He says "Government can play a supporting role. But government and farmers’ cooperatives cannot provide modern technology. For that, you need private players"

How can you expect private investments when you keep meddling with everything related to agriculture. People do private investmnets to earn profit.

You fix the prices to reduce inflation but your MSP finds it difficult to hold. You can do great justice to you post if you dont do anything!! I hope cricket keep you busy.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

1. CCI will suffer a loss of about Rs2,065 crore if it has to buy one-third of the entire crop of 33 million bales this year. The government steeply hiked the MSP for cotton by 46% in September prior to the onset of the harvest season; domestic prices now rule higher than the international cotton prices that have slipped due to slowing consumption.

2. India will host the fourth world congress on `conservation agriculture’ in New Delhi from Feb 4 to 7. The congress would showcase innovations in agriculture for improved efficiency, equity and environment. The congress would review the progress in conserving soil, water and other resources in agriculture It will also facilitate partnerships between countries, organisations, institutions and agencies.

Monday, November 24, 2008

1. Controversies surrounding the GM crops have again come up, with Mahyco ready to commercialize GM brinjal seeds. Various NGOs and farmers are out on the ground to protest. Point to be noted from the article. "Nowhere in the world GM brinjals are permitted for agricultural cultivation or human consumption. We are no guinea pigs. So, we should not be treated like one”. Gujrat Agriculture minister has no clue.

2. The US-based International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Development (IFDC) is pitching to promote the technology developed by them dubbed as Urea deep placement (UDP) technology for increasing the fertilizer use efficiency. UDP increases yields by 25% while using 40% less urea.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

1. This article in Taipei Times is puzzling - it points out that countries like Ukraine and Argentina have great potential for farming but are not reaping the benefits because of government meddling in exports and price-fixing. What beats me is that it blames that "Governments such as China, India and Vietnam fail to realize that restricting exports leads farmers to invest and produce less".

2. From BusineessLine: In a bid to bail out the food processing industry from the current financial crisis, the Government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). It will utilise the fund to refinance banks that lend to the food processing sector.

3. According to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the current financial crisis will adversely affect agricultural sectors in many countries, including India and other developing countries. Lower international commodity prices have not yet translated into lower domestic food prices in most low-income countries, it added. The FAO report further noted that world agriculture was facing serious long-term issues and challenges that need to be urgently addressed. These include land and water constraints, low investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research, expensive agricultural inputs relative to farm-gate prices and little adaptation to climate change.

Monday, November 17, 2008

One can hardly escape from bad news if he/she regularly browses on web or reads any of the business news paper. In the previous post, we discussed how farmers are largely unaware about the current financial crisis. But knowing the following things will surely cheer them up.

According to this article, which looks more like a well crafted advertisement for Monsanto, Bollgard technology has greatly helped farmers to increase the cotton yield. "Bollgard cotton provides in-built protection for cotton against destructive American Bollworm Heliothis Armigera (locally called American gundi) infestations, and contains an insecticidal protein from a naturally occurring soil micro organism, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)."

Heres another piece, which is again kind of an advertisement, although not as good as the previous one. A fair kicked off in Ranchi to to provide latest technical support to the farmers and also to apprise them about new technologies. It was emphasized that the agriculture department of the state has been providing the farmers with high yielding seeds instead of traditional seeds, which had enough potential for sustainable growth of agriculture.

Another agriculture fair was held in Bangalore where about 100000 farmers assembled for a glimpse of the new crop varieties, developed by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS). The annual fair is held to showcase latest farm technologies developed by the varsity and create awareness in the farming community on modern methods of harvesting.

This article brings to our notice the boom in flower industry. “Commercial floriculture could be a viable and profitable option along with regular crops for farmers in our country. The area of cultivation required is less and the output in terms of number is more. Labour costs and water management costs are also less. A farmer can get a profit equivalent to what he gets on a one-acre farm of regular crops by growing flowers on a 1,000 square meter area. The initial investment required could be, around Rs 5 to 6 lakh but now the NHM provides half the amount as subsidy. The rest of the loan, taken from banks, can be easily covered within two years.”

Saturday, November 15, 2008

ibnlive.in has got this interesting article about how farmers are unaware about the financial crisis that has stuck the world. I had a similar though recently when I visisted my home-village. "For almost 70 per cent of India, that lives in villages like Sonarpur, the Sensex going 20k up or 10k down isn't the debate. The debate is where the minimum support price is going, Rs 50 up to 900/quintal is what the villagers have heard. So the big worry is not the money they will get, but the current availability of fertilizers."

Sunday, November 9, 2008

The businessline story brings out an interesting point - Bank credit has been just Rs 95064 crore for the half year ending Sept,08. The target for the year is Rs 2,80,000 crore. So it is less than half the target till now. However our ever-optimistic stock-market-spokesperson cum finance minister is very optimistic - "We are well on the way to achieving the target (of Rs 280,000 crore). The banks have assured me that the target will be achieved”.

Respected Sir, there is a simple theory called incentive caused bias. If banks have to bear the brunt of your generous debt waiver, what would motivate them to lent money to farmers when it already so scare!!

Nokia has launched a service, dubbed "Life Tools" to provide the latest agricultural information, such as weather updates and grain prices; educational tools, such as English-language training and general knowledge; and appealing entertainment--namely horoscopes and downloadable ringtones.

Monthly subscription prices have been pegged at between Rs 30 and Rs 60 (62 cents to $1.23) for the agriculture and education modules. Entertainment services are paid for as downloads. Nokia hopes the platform will fill a big gap in 3G-starved markets like India where consumers are unlikely to have the flat-fee data bundles or fast download speeds that developed-market phone users have become used to.

Farmers are finding it hard to sell cotton at good prices. Although MSP prices are pretty decent this year, farmers are finding very few takers. Government is stepping up the procurement process to support the prices but unfortunately it if not working out. Some farmers are selling cheaper either to pay off the debt or because they dont have infrastructure to store. It is ironical that a higher yield of cotton is adding woes to the farmers instead of helping them.

One important thing to note is that when demand soars and prices are high, government alters it policies (like capping the price, increasing the imports etc) to keep check the prices. Most of the times it is successful in doing so but it fails miserable to keep up the prices in the times like this. So for a farmer, its always like loosing on any side of the coin.

Friday, October 17, 2008

1. A call for change in Government policy in agriculture in Indian Express. There should be more emphasis on investments in marketing and processing infrastructure, on expanding and modernizing the trading centers and on increasing the rural connectivity.

2. According to this article, "to give entry to various giant grain corporations, the Indian government slowly and systematically weakened its Public Distribution System (PDS) by slowing down grain procurement, especially wheat". This is leading to food crisis, specially for the people below poverty line.

3. B2B meetings for Agriculture and Food processing in India - The Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), in partnership with BCI - global leader of B2B meetings and professional events - will be setting up a first international trade show dedicated to agriculture machinery and food processing on March 4-6, 2009 and fully contribute to this process.

The show will combine a 3 day exhibition for Indian and international companies to showcase their products and capabilities and a matchmaking service to facilitate contacts. They will feature their technologies for agriculture and food processing.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

1. RCF (Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers) is planning to get into contract farming and green house businesses by leveraging its customer network and land holding. The company plans to build a network of at least 1,000 farmers to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables. Recently similar announcement was made by Bayer CropScience.

2. Contract farming verses cooperative farming - what is the difference. My guess is that in former, some corporate guy takes over farm land from small farmers or bound them by the contract, while in the later one, farmers unite and make a society like Amul and sow and sell the produce together.

3. Farmers are unhappy with the low MSP fixed by government. The input costs have risen much faster that the final output. Some comparative numbers with 1966 are given. According to Mahendra Singh Tikait, farmers' leader, fair price for wheat should be rs 3000/quintal and for sugarcane it should be Rs 250 a quintal.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

1. Millets are getting the charm back again after finding the way in Indian supermarkets and increasingly becoming part of urban diet. Decant herald carries an interesting article on Millets like jowar, bajra, ragi etc, which are also called "God's own crop"

2. Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has assured Punjab government that it would purchase maximum quantity of cotton from the mandis in the state so that the farmers could get remunerative price of their produce.

3. Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath calls for alliance among developing nations in Agriculture sector to fight against the subsidies provided by rich nations.

Monday, October 13, 2008

1. A scientist of Indian origin, along with his team, is developing wireless transceivers and sensors that would collect and send data about soil moisture within a field. The sensors could help researchers understand precisely how water moves through a field, develop better models to predict crop growth and yield and understand the carbon and nitrogen cycles within soils, as well as help farmers manage their nutrient and water resources, which could maximize yields and profits, and minimize environmental impacts.

2. Equitool is a tool to help decision-makers assess whether an organic production and processing standard applicable in one region of the world is equivalent, ie not identical but equally valid, to another organic standard. It will help streamline acceptance of products that are traded internationally according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Saturday, October 11, 2008

A panel formed by the government in 2006 has proposed the creation of a $2 billion fund to boost so-called secondary agriculture. It covers things like the extraction of oil from rice bran, milk from soya bean and industrial chemicals and biofuel from sugar cane, extracting vitamins from food grains, medicines from herbs, fibre boards from rice straw and so on. Details on the story here.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

1. The Hindu Businessline writes about slow growth in agriculture. Agricultural policies are to be blamed.

2. Farmers are not benefiting in spite of high MSP prices as open market prices fall much lower. Manipulative actions by traders also hit the profitability.

3. Indian mills can have custom grown wheat from Australia and enter into contract farming and long term agreements. South India flour mills, in particular, prefer Australian wheat not only for its quality but also due to logistical advantage.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

1. Business standard covers this interesting story on new farming techniques to improve land productivity as well as to reverse the climate change. Suggestions include rice-wheat cropping sequence, zero tillage agriculture, raised bed planting, laser land-lavelling and drip irrigation.

2. It is surprising to hear the suggestion coming from a minister to get foreign investment in agriculture. The food processing minister says that it is the "next sunrise sector".

3. Interesting story covered by ET on Agri-entrepreneurs. It covers various ventures like Satnam Agri Products by Mandip Singh producing premium potato chips, Minchy brand on wines by Girish Minocha and Pawas Canning by Hemant Desai exporting mango pulp to Japan. It also covers Nisarg Nirman Agro Products growing and selling exotic fruits to five start hotels, Jalbindu Agri Tech by Rahul Gala growing and selling dates using high echnology and "Best Roses" by Kumar Patel.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

1. Indian Express has got this interesting column about the denial of renewal of license to Metro Cash and Carry. "Those who shout loudest that farmers need a good deal are frequently the same people who protest loudest about big retail chains"

Sunday, September 21, 2008

1. The Economist carries an interesting story about shortage of water. We consumer more that 3000 litres of water per day. That is because today's agricultural practices wastes lot of water in irrigation.

2. The Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) has proposed an onion storage scheme. "This will prevent the usual trend between June and September, when the price per quintal goes up to Rs 1,000 from Rs 200-Rs 300", said project manager DM Sable of MSAMB.

3. Integrated farming is needed to achieve a sustainable high growth rate, said noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan at an agriculture leadership summit.

2. MS Swaminathan, one of India's best-known agricultural scientists and a Rajya Sabha member suggests that "Bihar now needs to change its short-term farm strategy and switch to short-haul cash crops that do rather well after floods. The idea is to grow crops that mature quickly — in about two months — and have a good market."

Friday, September 12, 2008

1. Business-line writes about the status of farm-insurance in our country in its editorial. According to a survey by Max New York Life and National Council for Applied Economic Research, only 19% of rural household have life insurance while only 10-15% of all farmers have crop insurance.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

1. According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the world cotton production is likely to fall. China has reduced its acreage for cotton cultivation and US and Pakistan are also set to report lower output. India, set to produce higher output will benefit from exports. Higher MSP (Rs 3000/quintal - 2,500/quintal) will also benefit farmers.

2. Bumper potato crop has become a curse for farmers instead of helping them. The prices have dropped down to Rs 350-400/quintal

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

2. Global Industry Analysis (GIA) has come out with a research report on Agriculture (priced $1950). "The report titled "Agriculture: A Global Outlook", published by Global Industry Analysts, provides a collection of statistical anecdotes, market briefs, and concise summaries of research findings. Discussions in the report take note of burning issues consuming the world agriculture industry, such as, food security for nations, food integrity, environmental degradation, and the growing notoriety of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Also covered are evolving trends i.e. the green revolution brought about by organic farming, e-commerce penetration in agrochemical trading, and the impact of biotechnology on agriculture, among others. Punctuated with 64 data rich, information laden tables and easy to understand charts and graphs, the discussion on the global market offers exclusive coverage on Agricultural Biotechnology, Agriculture and Environmental Diagnostics, and Agrochemicals, among others. Annotated with tables that enumerate key research findings, the regional markets briefly abstracted, and summarized include the US, Canada, and Japan, among others. The report provides an indexed, easy-to-refer, fact-finder directory listing the addresses, and contact details of 415 companies worldwide."

Saturday, September 6, 2008

1. Netafim, the world’s largest provider of smart water solutions for agriculture, inaugurates its second plant in Chennai, India. "Netafim™, an Israel based Agri-Business pioneer and the world’s largest provider of smart water solutions for agriculture, has been delivering innovative solutions that increase crop yields and preserve water resources. Netafim™ is active in over 110 countries across 5 continents, employing over 2600 employees, has more than 35 subsidiaries and 13 manufacturing facilities in 11 countries."

2. Bihar floods have led to losses worth more that 150 crores. Business-standard carried this story. Worst affected are the crops like paddy and maize and also pulses, vegetables and banana.

3. India is pushing on talks involving free trade of goods, services and investments with Japan and South Korea. Parallel talks are also going on with Thailand in similar lines.

4. Conflicts surrounding Pusa rise continues. Limited exports of Pusa rice has been allowed. Although it has not been provided the new definition of basmati rice in spite of meeting the necessary requirements.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Business-standard reports that private banks are buying loan portfolios from MFIs. Its a win-win kind of situation where MFI's benefit by reducing their asset size and hence increasing CAR, while banks try to meet the priority sector lending targets.

So banks are using these kind of tricks to extend 13.5 per cent of their advances as direct agricultural loans. This does not increase the credit availability for farmers so though this scheme may be good for MFIs and banks but may not be so for farmers.

Monday, September 1, 2008

1. Organic farming is gaining some interest across farmers and consumers. We can see special sections in grocery retail chains dedicated for organic farming products. One of the companies working in this domain is Sresta, founded by an IIM alumnus. ET covers a story here.

2. Businessline carried the story about late inclusion of Pusa 1121 into new definition of basmati rice. The story also explains the economy of paddy cultivation on a per acre basis. “As it is, Pusa 1121 prices have been going down in the global market and the delay in notifying the evolved variety would be a final nail in the coffin of the growers of this variety of rice.”

Farm subsidies and debt waiver serve no purpose in long term and hence does not count.

We can assume that improvement in rural infrastructure will help farmers in some way and so it is actually agricultural capex. The proportion of capex in agriculture to total spending comes to around ((20,000 + 14,000)/(240000+507000)) = ~4.55%

So that is 4.55 percent for more that 50% of people sustaining on agriculture. And god knows knows how much of it will actually go down till implementation.

Friday, August 29, 2008

1. India's Q1 GDP growth is 7.9%, lowest since 2004. There have been different estimates of the GDP growth for year 08-09. Some have been very optimistic forecasting more that 9%. With inflation taking time and ease and tighter credit policy, only time will tell how much we grow this year. Till then, lets leave the job of forecasting the growth to economists and stock market analysts. By simple law of probability half of them will be correct :p

2. Quite contrary to a news today, this one says that India may produce record rice this year. "India's rice production in this agriculture year may breach the record output of 96.43 million tons in the last year on the back of increased acreage even as floods in some producing areas have hit the kharif crop, a top government official said today."

1. Cotton output seen good this year because if good rains and better seeds. But will the farmers benefit?India Cotton Output May Top Estimate as Rains Improve (Update3)Bloomberg - USAIndia starts cotton planting in June and the harvest begins in October. China is forecast by the US Department of Agriculture to produce 35.5 million bales ...

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

1. The revival in agricultural growthHindu Business Line - Chennai,IndiaAt a time when there are signs of a slowdown in industry, much is being made of an agricultural revival that is helping to stabilise India’s high growth rate. But C. P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh argue that, despite somewhat high growth rates of agriculture in recent years, a longer term perspective suggests that all is still not well in a sector that has been damaged in India’s post-reform growth trajectory.

2. Biofuel: Algae takes lead over jatrophaChandigarh Tribune - IndiaAs algae do not need agriculture land, it can be grown using non-potable or sea water. “Algae farming for oil can be great opportunity for India, ...

3. Surinder Sud: Reaping what you sowBusiness Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,IndiaIndia'sproductivity in agriculture is directly related to the low sums it invests in R&D. For agricultural growth to be knowledge-based and ...

4. INDIA’S RURAL SALVATION COULD BE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTUREBy erleargonza Millions of farmers in remote rural areas of India struggle to feed themselves and their families, while the resources on which they depend are deteriorating daily. This book shows how sustainable agriculture can help India’s farmers ...

2. India firm over sectoral tariffsBusiness Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,IndiaThe strategy of developing countries, including India, is to first get their concerns on protection of their agriculture sectors addressed, after which they ...

4. Organic FarmingBy rajkumar Arresting the decline of soil organic matter is the most potent weapon in fighting against unabated soil degradation and imperilled sustainability of agriculture in tropical regions of India, particularly those under the influence of ...

2. How agriculture is blooming in SingaporeCommodity Online - Kochi,Kerala,IndiaAnd companies in Asia based in Singapore are looking to countries like China and India and launching agri-funds to tap the Asian potential,” says the ...

Thursday, August 21, 2008

1. Vertical Farms for Food & RestorationSustainableBusiness.com - Huntington Station,NY,USAOver the past three years, he's focused on the effects of agriculture on the environment. He gave the class a project: pretend you're a community of 50000 ...

3. India - Promises to keepBy sri(sri) "the strategy for revitalising agriculture has yet to show visible outcomes. The record food production this year needs to be balanced with a modest projected 2 per cent growth in agriculture by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. Agricultural productivity needs to substantially rise since the average yield of rice in India between 2003 and 2005 according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) was 3,034 kg a hectare compared to 6,233 kg a hectare in China, while for wheat the figures were 2,688 kg a hectare for India compared to 4,155 kg a hectare for China, while for rapeseed and mustard India averaged 909 kg/hectare compared to China’s 1,778 kg/hectare. Similarly the divergence between India and China in horticulture has also increased sharply in recent years with China producing 450 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables compared to our 135 million tonnes. The EAC report also believes “that old tired excuses of substandard agricultural performance are not valid because Indian agriculture is placed favourably when compared to China in terms of quantity of arable land (161 million hectares vs. 130 million hectares), irrigated land (55.8 million hectares vs. 54.5 million hectares), average farm size (1.4 hectares vs. 0.4 hectares).”Improving productivity involves a quantum change in application of improved technology with water economical cropping pattern, innovating drought-resistant seed strains, improving marketing outlets, reducing wastage arising from absence of cold chains, deeper penetration of formal credit to farmers and improved coordination between the Centre and the States particularly in harnessing the comparative strengths of various regional and climatic zones. No action has been taken on the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee on revamping of agricultural research. The rural roads programme is running behind target. Cold Storage and Cold Chains remain inadmissible for priority sector lending. Our approach remains excessively anchored to multiple subsidies instead of altering the context enabling infrastructure. "

3. Farmers protest scarcity of fertilisersThe Statesman - Kolkata,IndiaBut government of India has so far supplied only 6. 91 lakh MT and that too not in time, agriculture office sources said. At the same time corrupt dealers ...

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

1. Organic food not healthier, study findsCNN International - USA...Agriculture Organization estimates that organic farming now accounts for around 4.1 million hectares in Asian countries like India, China and Russia. ...

2. India - More bad news for cottonYarnsandFibers (subscription) - Mumbai,IndiaThe US Department of Agriculture, in a recent report, said planted acreage has declined from 10.8 million acres in 2007 to 9.2 million this year. ...

Monday, August 18, 2008

India may outpace Brazil in sugar productionCommodity Online - Kochi,Kerala,IndiaThe Union Agriculture Ministry sources said, the sugar production has been fairly good. Even in 2007, the country produced 275 lakh tonnes of sugar while ...

Indian Agriculture business or service????By mkalyan6484 India is 2nd largest agriculture producer but still we don't have sufficient amount to feed our people. Why??? Because everything is exported, without giving a thought for people of our country. Is profit is only important goal for all ...

2. Food, fuel subsidies will continue: PMBusiness Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,IndiaThis had led, after almost a decade of stagnation in agriculture, to a revival, causing record production of foodgrains, cotton and sugar in 2007-08. ...

2. India's sugar export soarsHindu - Chennai,IndiaNew Delhi (PTI): India's sugar exports have reached about 43 lakh tons till first week of August in the current 2007-08 season, which is more than double ...